Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Okay, first off...I am not a racist. I am nowhere even close. I have many black friends. My nephew is half black even. So, please, do not take what I am about to write that way.

Now....I have a problem. I have a problem with what I am seeing on the TV today. As some of you may know, we have a new President as of today. Why is every station, every news report focusing on black people? Seems 90% or more of the "people on the street" interviews that I have seen so far concentrate on black people? Every interview is of a black person. Every close up picture is of a black person. Every crowd reaction is from a black person. And every single one of them say they never thought they would see this day happen.

Now, I strongly feel that today is a great day in history. I support our new President. But, how can we truly move past racism or seeing people of other colors as different if the media doesn't stop focusing on it??? Yes, this is a great day for the black people of this world. Their ancestors faced more hardships than a lot of us. Now, my Grandmother and Grandfather lived in Europe during WWII. My Grandmother moved from town to town to get away from the Nazi's. My Grandfather was a soldier and was a POW actually. They had it very hard as well. They feared for their lives every second of every day. But, you know what? That was in the past. The world has moved on. We all admit what happened was wrong. We all admit that it was bad. We all realize that it can never happen again.

Why can't we accomplish this with racism? We all know what happened was wrong. We all know it was bad. We all realize that slavery and segregation can never happen again. What is the difference? Why can't we all stop focusing on the color of our skin and concentrate on the color of our character? As far as I'm concerned. You could be black, blue, purple, brown, yellow, red, or pink with orange polka dots; as long as you are a good person and do the right thing...you are all right in my book.

Watching President Obama speak is inspirational to me. Watching the feelings he brings out in people makes me feel hopeful. Watching people in other countries celebrate along with us brings a tear to my eye. President Obama brings hope. President Obama brings inspiration. NO MATTER THE COLOR OF YOUR SKIN! If the Inauguration can bring a tear to my eye. I'm sure it's bringing a tear to others. Other white men and women, black men and women, Latino men and women, etc..

So, why the hell am I only seeing black men and women's reaction on TV? We all feel pride. We all feel hope. We are all human. We are all one. The media needs to just STOP focusing on race. How can we move on otherwise?